Joshua 9

• 1. Now all the kings west of the Jordan heard about what had happened. (These were the kings of the Hittites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites, who lived in the hill country, in the western foothills, and along the coast of the Mediterranean Sea as far north as the Lebanon mountains.)
• 2. These kings quickly combined their armies to fight against Joshua and the Israelites.
• 3. But when the people of Gibeon heard what had happened to Jericho and Ai,
• 4. they resorted to deception to save themselves. They sent ambassadors to Joshua, loading their donkeys with weathered saddlebags and old patched wineskins.
• 5. They put on ragged clothes and worn-out, patched sandals. And they took along dry, moldy bread for provisions.
• 6. When they arrived at the camp of Israel at Gilgal, they told Joshua and the men of Israel, "We have come from a distant land to ask you to make a peace treaty with us."
• 7. The Israelites replied to these Hivites, "How do we know you don't live nearby? For if you do, we cannot make a treaty with you."
• 8. They replied, "We will be your servants.But who are you?" Joshua demanded. "Where do you come from?"
• 9. They answered, "We are from a very distant country. We have heard of the might of the LORD your God and of all he did in Egypt.
• 10. We have also heard what he did to the two Amorite kings east of the Jordan River--King Sihon of Heshbon and King Og of Bashan (who lived in Ashtaroth).
• 11. So our leaders and our people instructed us, `Prepare for a long journey. Go meet with the people of Israel and declare our people to be their servants, and ask for peace.'
• 12. "This bread was hot from the ovens when we left. But now, as you can see, it is dry and moldy.
• 13. These wineskins were new when we filled them, but now they are old and cracked. And our clothing and sandals are worn out from our long, hard trip."
• 14. So the Israelite leaders examined their bread, but they did not consult the LORD.
• 15. Then Joshua went ahead and signed a peace treaty with them, and the leaders of Israel ratified their agreement with a binding oath.
• 16. Three days later, the facts came out--these people of Gibeon lived nearby!
• 17. The Israelites set out at once to investigate and reached their towns in three days. The names of these towns were Gibeon, Kephirah, Beeroth, and Kiriath-jearim.
• 18. But the Israelites did not attack the towns, for their leaders had made a vow to the LORD, the God of Israel. The people of Israel grumbled against their leaders because of the treaty.
• 19. But the leaders replied, "We have sworn an oath in the presence of the LORD, the God of Israel. We cannot touch them.
• 20. We must let them live, for God would be angry with us if we broke our oath.
• 21. Let them live. But we will make them chop the wood and carry the water for the entire community." So the Israelites kept their promise to the Gibeonites.
• 22. But Joshua called together the Gibeonite leaders and said, "Why did you lie to us? Why did you say that you live in a distant land when you live right here among us?
• 23. May you be cursed! From now on you will chop wood and carry water for the house of my God."
• 24. They replied, "We did it because we were told that the LORD your God instructed his servant Moses to conquer this entire land and destroy all the people living in it. So we feared for our lives because of you. That is why we have done it.
• 25. Now we are at your mercy--do whatever you think is right."
• 26. Joshua did not allow the people of Israel to kill them.
• 27. But that day he made the Gibeonites the woodchoppers and water carriers for the people of Israel and for the altar of the LORD--wherever the LORD would choose to build it. That arrangement continues to this day.

Psalms 141

• 1. O LORD, I am calling to you. Please hurry! Listen when I cry to you for help!
• 2. Accept my prayer as incense offered to you, and my upraised hands as an evening offering.
• 3. Take control of what I say, O LORD, and keep my lips sealed.
• 4. Don't let me lust for evil things; don't let me participate in acts of wickedness. Don't let me share in the delicacies of those who do evil.
• 5. Let the godly strike me! It will be a kindness! If they reprove me, it is soothing medicine. Don't let me refuse it. But I am in constant prayer against the wicked and their deeds.
• 6. When their leaders are thrown down from a cliff, they will listen to my words and find them pleasing.
• 7. Even as a farmer breaks up the soil and brings up rocks, so the bones of the wicked will be scattered without a decent burial.
• 8. I look to you for help, O Sovereign LORD. You are my refuge; don't let them kill me.
• 9. Keep me out of the traps they have set for me, out of the snares of those who do evil.
• 10. Let the wicked fall into their own snares, but let me escape.

Jeremiah 3

• 1. "If a man divorces a woman and she marries someone else, he is not to take her back again, for that would surely corrupt the land. But you have prostituted yourself with many lovers, says the LORD. Yet I am still calling you to come back to me.
• 2. "Look all around you. Is there anywhere in the entire land where you have not been defiled by your adulteries? You sit like a prostitute beside the road waiting for a client. You sit alone like a nomad in the desert. You have polluted the land with your prostitution and wickedness.
• 3. That is why even the spring rains have failed. For you are a prostitute and are completely unashamed.
• 4. Yet you say to me, `Father, you have been my guide since the days of my youth.
• 5. Surely you won't be angry about such a little thing! Surely you can forget it!' So you talk, and keep right on doing all the evil you can."
• 6. During the reign of King Josiah, the LORD said to me, "Have you seen what fickle Israel does? Like a wife who commits adultery, Israel has worshiped other gods on every hill and under every green tree.
• 7. I thought that after she had done all this she would return to me. But she did not come back. And though her faithless sister Judah saw this,
• 8. she paid no attention. She saw that I had divorced faithless Israel and sent her away. But now Judah, too, has left me and given herself to prostitution.
• 9. Israel treated it all so lightly--she thought nothing of committing adultery by worshiping idols made of wood and stone. So now the land has been greatly defiled.
• 10. But in spite of all this, her faithless sister Judah has never sincerely returned to me. She has only pretended to be sorry," says the LORD.
• 11. Then the LORD said to me, "Even faithless Israel is less guilty than treacherous Judah!
• 12. Therefore, go and say these words to Israel, `This is what the LORD says: O Israel, my faithless people, come home to me again, for I am merciful. I will not be angry with you forever.
• 13. Only acknowledge your guilt. Admit that you rebelled against the LORD your God and committed adultery against him by worshiping idols under every green tree. Confess that you refused to follow me. I, the LORD, have spoken!'"
• 14. "Return home, you wayward children," says the LORD, "for I am your husband. I will bring you again to the land of Israel--one from here and two from there, from wherever you are scattered.
• 15. And I will give you leaders after my own heart, who will guide you with knowledge and understanding.
• 16. "And when your land is once more filled with people," says the LORD, "you will no longer wish for `the good old days' when you possessed the Ark of the LORD's covenant. Those days will not be missed or even thought about, and there will be no need to rebuild the Ark.
• 17. In that day Jerusalem will be known as The Throne of the LORD. All nations will come there to honor the LORD. They will no longer stubbornly follow their own evil desires.
• 18. In those days the people of Judah and Israel will return together from exile in the north. They will return to the land I gave their ancestors as an inheritance forever.
• 19. "I thought to myself, `I would love to treat you as my own children!' I wanted nothing more than to give you this beautiful land--the finest inheritance in the world. I looked forward to your calling me `Father,' and I thought you would never turn away from me again.
• 20. But you have betrayed me, you people of Israel! You have been like a faithless wife who leaves her husband," says the LORD.
• 21. Voices are heard high on the windswept mountains, the weeping and pleading of Israel's people. For they have forgotten the LORD their God and wandered far from his ways.
• 22. "My wayward children," says the LORD, "come back to me, and I will heal your wayward hearts.Yes, we will come," the people reply, "for you are the LORD our God.
• 23. Our worship of idols and our religious orgies on the hills and mountains are completely false. Only in the LORD our God will Israel ever find salvation.
• 24. From childhood we have watched as everything our ancestors worked for--their flocks and herds, their sons and daughters--was squandered on a delusion.
• 25. Let us now lie down in shame and dishonor, for we and our ancestors have always sinned against the LORD our God. We have never obeyed him."

New Living Translation: 188 of 365 days.